Rating: 
Summary: Cop With A Soul
Review: This is a well-crafted story of policework in Seattle, solving a mystery along the way and introducing a cast of likable characters based on real life.Growing up in Seattle the locales are spot-on, and the times well-portrayed (the image of the cop as a student-by-day, policeman-by-night, and unable to tell either group of friends about the other, is a perfect metaphor). The main character of Sam, the beat cop who writes poetry in his slack times, is a wonderful antidote to the hardboiled cop stereotype and, to some large degree, appears to be autobiographical. Lowen Clausen, from the reading I attended last week, appears to be that "cop with a soul." Recommended without reservation.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Debut & A Thinking Reader's Police Story!!!
Review: This is as fine a debut novel as you will come across and is one of the better police novels I have read in many years! I say that without qualification and I have read many a mystery novel and police procedural. This one is excellent and what is so surprising is that this book is the author's first effort! The author, Lowen Clausen, spent 13 years with the Seattle PD. Obviously, his main character, Sam, is his literary version of himself. The way Mr. Clausen develops this character, as well as the second figure, a young female officer who is new to the police department is what makes this novel a thinking reader's police story. To be sure, this is not your bang-bang, action-packed police procedural. There are no "unbelievable" scenes or conversations. Although pacing is not the quickest of what would be expected and found in this type of story, Mr. Clausen does a fine job moving this story forward in a way that will keep the reader involved and concerned. The main character is a police officer who routinely patrols First Ave. in Seattle before it was gentrified. The average reader may not know enough about Seattle history to know when that happened and Clausen does not say, but that's okay. Sam is a policeman who almost seems to be a character out of place and out of his element. He is, somewhat incongruously, a poetry writing patrolman. That alone sets him apart from his fellow officers and unlike the other career members of the force, he has taken college courses at the University of Washington in of all things, literature. The plot here revolves around the finding of a dead baby and the questions it raises about the location of the mother. Sam and a couple of other "concerned police officers" decide to pursue what few leads they have in an attempt to close the case. They want to close it not just to fill a square and because the rules say they must, but for the simple reason that Sam vaguely knew the mother and was also aware that she would never abandon her infant child. Clausen very effectively uses scene and descriptions of the locale to create mood, tension, relief and and the very end, closure. Had I never been to Seattle, this book would have served as an excellent primer on what I might expect to find when I did get there. In addition to the attempts to find the young mother of the dead baby, Clausen interjects the possibility of high level corruption, dissolute heirs to newspaper fortunes and drug smuggling. He does an exceptional job of blending all of the disparate plot elements together to create an outstanding story and one that leaves you feeling for the main characters when the book ends. This is not your typical police novel. But then, it doesn't have to be. Mr. Clausen is a talented and accomplished writer who will probably defy typecasting. This book shows that he will be able to transcend genre labeling and I hope we see more of his work very soon. Paul Connors
Rating:
Summary: What a great debut novel!
Review: This was one of the best police procedurals I have read in quite some time. The characters were down-to-earth and believable. It wasn't your rough-em-up, shoot-em-up novel that is so typical of some of today's authors. Sam Wright is an average, everyday working man, minus the tough-talking self congratulatory conceitedness that you find in many fictional protagonists. The author carried this story from beginning to end, finely weaving all the details of the story and bringing them together wonderfully. Nothing about this book was overstated or overdone. I hope Clausen continues to write more in the same manner as this one.
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